YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon – Bishop Paul Lontsié-Keuné, who has been a lightning rod for pro-democratic forces in Cameroon, has once again put the government on red alert, saying that he is ready to die for the truth.

The bishop of Bafoussam, known for his acerbic critique of the Biya government, blasted the authorities for continued intimidation of citizens as a presidential election scheduled for October 12 approaches.

President Paul Biya, 92, has been in power since 1982 and is seeking an 8th term in office.

Government officials have threatened severe retaliation against critics of Biya. Minister of Territorial Administration Paul Atanga Nji has repeatedly vowed to crush those “threatening public peace” with the same brutality as ingredients in a blender.

While the president’s extended tenure, advanced age, and declining health have drawn opposition and Church criticism, Lontsié-Keuné has voiced deeper concerns about Cameroon’s political process itself. The bishop has specifically condemned the exclusion of Maurice Kamto — Biya’s most formidable rival and the opposition leader who continues to claim victory in the 2018 presidential election — from the October 12 poll.

He has also taken issue at the violation of the electoral calendar through postponement of legislative and local elections to 2026, and criticized the deployment of security forces at major city intersections following the publication of the final candidate list. The bishop has also been at odds with restrictions on public freedoms and the surge in tribalism and hate speech.

“All these behaviors and events observed on the eve of the presidential election do not promote peace,” he said.

He said peace “cannot be achieved through lies, manipulation, intimidation, fear, denial of rights, injustice, corruption, the buying of consciences, the exploitation of the law and its variable interpretation for political ends.”

As if anticipating that his critical utterances against government’s electoral malpractices could eventually land him in trouble, Lontsié-Keuné said he is ready to pay the ultimate price.

“So if there is only one person to be killed, let them kill me and leave you, the people of God alone,” the bishop said at Mass on Sunday.

“And if there is only one person to be imprisoned, let them imprison me and leave you alone,” he added, and urged prisoners to welcome him “as a brother” because he has always had their back in freedom.

The bishop noted that suffering for the Christian is just part of carrying the Cross, reminiscent of the price Christ paid for the sins of man.

“The disciple is not greater than his master,” he said.

“We are disciples of a crucified Christ. But that’s not all. He is crucified, he is dead, he is risen again,” Lontsié-Keuné said, to thunderous applause from the Christians.

The bishop’s continued bashing of the Biya regime has also given his priests the courage to speak out against what they see as evil in society.

“Human life no longer has any value; it is cheap, trampled underfoot,” said Father Philype Kahake of the Saint Robert Parish in the Bamengouem Airport.

“Dignity is being flouted. Do we respect it? God says thou shalt not kill. To those who govern us, we say: thou shalt not kill. It is not the people who have the weapons; it is those who govern us who have the weapons. When someone dies because they have been shot, it means that it was not the people who shot them,” the priest said.

He denounced the reign of injustice and condemned what he called blind leadership at the helm of the state.

“The situation is clear. We are at an impasse in our country. Everyone is crying, everyone is shouting. Why? Why this stagnation? Why? Why all this crying? Why are families not thriving? Well, because whether it is those who command us, whether it is family heads, whether it is anyone, no one obeys anything anymore, as we can see in our country, starting at the top. We say that the good example comes from above, but [in Cameroon today] the bad example is coming from above,” Kahake said.

A call to vote

Despite the seeming irregularities in the electoral process, Lontsié-Keuné urged Christians to vote massively in the October poll.

“By voting, refuse to sell your conscience, whatever the proposed price,” he cautioned.

“No one must, at any stage of the process, change the value of the vote of a single citizen,” he said.

Amid the growing pre-electoral tensions, the President of the National Episcopal Conference has urged Cameroonians to be peaceful before, during and after the Presidential election.

In an interview with Crux, Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya of Bamenda said that the Church will be working endlessly to ensure that the process is peaceful and just, even as he distanced the Church from partisan politics.

“Although we maintain our neutrality when it comes to partisan politics, we are going to deploy election observers in all the polling stations in our ecclesiastical province to have a feel of what Cameroonians will go through in these elections and be able to make an evaluation after,” he told said.

“We are working on how our justice and peace institutions, our justice and peace offices, can act as election monitors, election observers in all the dioceses of this ecclesiastical province,” Nkea told Crux.

He said the Justice and Peace Commission of the Cameroon Bishops’ Conference is already planning a seminar at the national level where “we are going to draw our election officers from all over the country to come for a formation session so that they are able to understand how to observe and how to report after observing elections.”